Wages in for-profit and nonprofit private hospitals

July 01, 2005

A study of data from the July 2003 National Compensation Survey shows that the average hourly rate for all workers in for-profit hospitals, $19.26, was lower than the average hourly rate for all workers in nonprofit hospitals, $20.16.

Full-time workers in for-profit hospitals also had a lower average hourly rate than their not-for-profit counterparts, but part-time workers in for-profit and nonprofit hospitals had nearly identical average hourly rates.

The lower average wage rate in for-profit hospitals may be due to the fact that the for-profit hospitals were smaller than the hospitals classified as nonprofit. Of the private for-profit hospitals studied, only 13 percent employed more than 2,500 workers. But of the private nonprofit hospitals studied, 28 percent had more than 2,500 workers.